Just read my last post in 2006, where I complained about Blue Shield. Thankfully, things have taken a turn for the better since then. The company I worked for got acquired, and the new company is bigger and has much better benefits. As a result, I now have Aeta, whose "reasonable and customary" fee for this type of surgery closely approximates my surgeon's quote. Net, my out-of-pocket has dropped to about $8,500, instead of the whopping $21,000 I'd have to pay if I stayed with Blue Shield.